Josh's Blog

Joshua playin' bball

2009-01-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

there's no turning back. Joshua is playin' ball now. and he's loving it.

back to dana point & laguna

2008-11-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

for our 7th anniversay last weekend, janell took us back to our honeymoon spot in dana point, ca. we spent our time on the beaches in laguna, swimming, talking, lying in the sand, watching the sunset, and enjoying paradise. it was hard to stop and take pictures, but got a few. 89 degrees in november. hard to top that.

just his style

2008-11-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

we knew it was coming. jacob his first black eye and stiches, in his left eyebrow, a few weeks ago. he did it tripping while running, and we won't be surprised if it happens again, soon. he hated the stiching part, and screamed holding onto janell. the doctor said that he likely won't remember it, thankfully. within a couple of days he was back to normal, and it cleared right up for our family pictures a couple of weeks later. he was looking handsome as ever.

the st. george

2008-11-17T21:12:00.003-08:00

my goal to run a marathon came on my mission in mongolia. 9 yrs later, it happened, and i got to run it with janell, her 2nd, and dan, his first. us before, during, and after. i'll probably do it again. i know janell will. dan said no, even though he made great time. thanks to lissy for standing out in the rain all day to cheer us on.

to the "u" and the "h"

2008-11-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

yes, we're byu fans, but not opposed to hiking up to any letter on the mountain. a couple of months back, joshua, jacob, and i hiked up to the "u" and then followed it with a hike to the "h", close by our house. we didn't get a picture of the "h", but the last 2 photos are the view. not bad.

climbing

2008-11-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

joshua at jenny's soccer game. i was a bit concerned the tree would fall over, but joshua was determined. fun guy.

first day of kindergarten

2008-11-17T20:48:00.000-08:00

handsome guy on his first day of kindergarten.

life elevated

2008-11-17T20:32:00.000-08:00

mandy, one of janell's best friends from high school, and mike, one of my new best friends, came to utah this summer for some high mountain air. they were kind enough to invite us to enjoy the weekend with them, and we had a terrific time. mike and mandy are the best. thank goodness for good friends.

lagoon

2008-11-17T20:22:00.001-08:00

a few months back, we went to lagoon, and the boys had a blast. joshua was up for trying every ride. jacob got scared on most of the first rides we took him on. it took most of the day for him to gain his confidence back. he finally did the kiddie bumper cars all by himself, even though he was terrified at first, and ended up loving it. i like the middle picture because it is classic joshua. never goes to the bathroom until he absolutely has to.

boyhood dream come true

2008-08-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

when i was 12 years old, our family took a trip from maryland to see new york city. i was awestruck by the city, so much life, so much going on, and so many professional-looking people. in the financial district, i remember standing and watching men in dark suits going in and out of buildings and getting in cars and thinking, these guys look really important, i want to be like them someday.

this week i went to new york, stayed in an apt across the street from battery park in the financial district and found myself working in 4 different downtown buildings. the boyhood dream reached fruition, and it was more fun than imagined.

what a city, so many people from so many backgrounds. my taxi driver from jfk, norman, was jamaican and to jfk, simon, was haitian. the city was large, clean, friendly, and active. probably my favorite thing to see was guys playing basketball on courts in the upper east side; i wanted to jump out and play with them. i stopped in a small market to ask directions, and the latino guy behind the counter walked around, took me outside and down the street, and pointed me in the right direction. and he wasn't the only exceptionally nice person i met.

one morning i went for a run and found a path along the west side, next to the hudson river, that went through parks and included a boardwalk. what a view! tugboats, cargo ships, ferries, and sailboats, with looming buildings in the background (most impressive of which was 30 Hudson). lots of people were running, rollerblading, walking with small children, and giving their dogs a break.

on the way to the airport, we went through brooklyn. there were communities with peoples of all races, a jewish neighborhood, and then a predominantly black area. i couldn't have asked for a better drive.

view from triborough bridge

outside apartment, the smithsonian, and battery park to the right
entrance to apartment

apartmentsailboat on hudsonstatue of liberty from aptbrooklyn, manhattan, and williamsburg bridges, from worku.s. flag on the brooklynto the north, from financial district.my friend galit helped me take the subway up to mid-town so i could walk through central park and go to columbia.

east mid-town apt

belvedere castle, central park
baseball in central park.
columbia unversity library

happy 4th!

2008-07-29T21:24:00.000-07:00

july 4th is right up with christmas for me. warm air and spending the day outside is the best.

fam reunion

2008-07-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

fun family reunion in june, we enjoyed our beautiful hike.

runnin'

2008-07-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

in april, 3 of us ran races, janell and i the salt lake 1/2 marathon, and joshua the kid's 1k marathon. joshua is has been talking about doing another one, longer and without dad running with him.

trip to sf

2008-07-29T20:54:00.001-07:00

went to sf in may. thanks dave and brook, and cambria and maya! i had a great time.

luckiest guy

2008-01-23T21:19:00.001-08:00

so, i realize that janell is much cuter, smarter and a much better writer. i'm the luckiest guy to be married to her. well, i do feel fortunate, maybe a little smart, for asking her to marry me at a time when it would have been difficult to say no...luckily, she had thought about it just a couple of weeks earlier and knew it was coming! we've now passed our 6 year mark - things couldn't be better. our fun and handsome children, joshua and jacob, are joys. just to give an idea of how much more interestingly janell expresses our lives, read our holiday vacation (can compare with my sorry holiday post below) and this about sweet jacob. one thing to add on jacob. he pronounces everyone else's name in our family perfectly - he's been saying "joshuua" for months. but never tried to say his own. until a couple of months ago he started calling himself "beetup". cute name, and kind of close to jacob. the other day, since he can say "jay", we worked on saying "cup". it was obvious he couldn't say his "c"s, and he was saying "but" instead. then i thought, man this guy is smarter than he lets on. he can't say "jacob", so he picked "beetup" instead of "jay-but". showing some early prudence

fb

2008-01-09T06:53:00.001-08:00

how about byu ending up 14th in the 2007 year end AP poll? i was pretty happy to find that out - nice job cougs!

holiday/winter break

2008-01-08T21:02:00.000-08:00

we had a great time over the holidays. christmas was spent our favorite way - at home in slc with each other. most of all i was grateful to spend time with janell. visiting friends and family together is the best, and we got to do lots of it. thank you to the bakers, atkinsons, moores, tylers, thomas', halls, collivers, stevensons, reyes', fogelquists, mccords, cooks, bairds, poggios, all the merrells, mom, jodi, and lorri for your friendship, love, and company over christmas break!

for a day of fun, we took the boys tubing to gorgoza park in park city on a whopping 5 degree day. we all ended up pretty cold, but joshua had a blast (jacob didn't get to tube this time). inside a mongolian style (almost) yurt getting slightly warmed...

the greatest calendar

2008-01-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

aunt lorri is amazing - she made this cool calendar for grandma. the stars are joshua & jacob, arianna & enzo, & ethan. a lot of fun pictures (can click for larger images). nice work lorri

three good speeches

2007-12-03T21:36:00.001-08:00

3 of my favorite speeches/letters. warning - none is short

martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail. read it first in a favorite college class, intensive writing - a powerful message with great clarity. then heard it again recently reading king's autobiography. i was also pleased to learn that bill george, a new personal hero, uses the letter in his leadership classes at hbs.

bill gates' 2007 harvard commencement remarks on solving the world's biggest problems, "whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement." reading about his preparation for the speech made it all the more impressive to me.

hank paulson's restoring investor confidence, now secretary of treasury, but CEO of goldman at the time, "I [believe] passionately in the strength of our free market system -- a system that generates growth, creates jobs, rewards initiative and fosters innovation like no other in history...this [is] an opportunity to...rebuild the trust that is so fundamental to our markets and their vitality."

do you have a favorite speech?

jacob and aaron

2007-12-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

great picture of jacob with cousin aaron at grandma's house (thanks Jer for the pic). we had to keep watching b/c he kept wanting to get too close!

the admirable john doerr

2007-11-15T14:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/vftt_doerr07.shtml
an interesting presentation at Stanford GSB by John Doerr, a venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins, which Al Gore and Colin Powell have recently joined, on global warming, pollution, and alternative energy (reminds me of World is Flat). i like where he is going with alternative energy research and the other work he is involved in. he also gives some good advice on work/life balance and books to read. 54min video or text summary.

nice pics

2007-11-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

some cool pictures, good for wallpaper
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/index.php?sort=ratings&w=1920&h=1200

the three best

2007-10-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

Joshua is now 4 1/2, in pre-school, soccer and t-ball player, learned to ride without training wheels this summer and always up for trying new stuff, including singing solo last week in church..he nailed it.
Soccer this summer. Definitely Joshua's favorite. He scored his first goal a few weeks ago, and he's telling everyone.

Jacob, 1 1/2 years, just picked up walking two months ago, and he's grown up a lot since. He's trying to say so much, including "Nino" for Dinosaur and "Babeeball" for basketball.

Janell and Jacob. A favorite picture of mine.

mike

2007-10-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

sticking with chicago theme, i thought i would post one of my favorite photos all time

chicago visit

2007-10-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Last week Janell and I toured Chicago - she has been there multiple times, but for me it was a first. What a great city. Driving in on I-94, well, very cool. It brought back memories of every big, exciting large city I've ever been to. So much action. So much going on. I took an immediate liking to Lake Shore Drive, still in the city, but feels like you're out. Janell said she could see herself running up and down the lakeside along the impressive skyline if we lived there (I could too). If we did, we would be in close proximity to good friends and family: Mike & Mandie, Vicki & Frank, and Heide & Steve, and Garrett (we definitely could see you as a Chicago guy). In late evening we walked admiringly along the Magnificent Mile, enjoying the sights, sounds, lights, stores of a superbly clean city. First visit to Chicago: A+

child labor

2007-09-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last night, sitting down to fold the laundry kindly left by my beautiful, busy wife, I turned on UEN and watched a chilling story on child labor, called Stolen Childhoods. 220 million children worldwide are unable to attend school because of 12+ hours a day of hard labor: digging through landfills, stranded on isolated fishing docks, working at rock quarries, coffee plantations, sweat shops... It was eye-opening.

An estimated $8 billion a year could help them back to school. If that seems like a lot, the $40 billion a year we spend of golf puts it in perspective! I wonder if Bill G. has looked at this?

Someday I want to get heavily involved with a non-profit that helps improve health, educational, and economic opportunities. Helping children, especially, seems like a way to make a difference.

starting...

2007-09-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Thank you Janell (my love), Todd&Katie and others who helped me start this: connecting with others and sharing ideas through a blog.